


Look up to the stars (and you'll see a universe of possibilities)

by Casstea



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Ficlet Collection, M/M, More characters to be added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-07-19 15:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 6,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7367929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casstea/pseuds/Casstea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of fics written for the MI6 Cafe 007 Fest.</p><p>(16) Tough- <i>Eve loved Madeleine just the way she was.</i> (Eve/Madeline, Romance, PG)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Open Line

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the MI6 Cafe 007 Games.
> 
> Prompt: Bruise (Prompt Table 1)
> 
> A/N: Hope you all enjoy this!

“It _hurts,_ ” James said, nursing the bruise on his arm. It was starting to blacken, and the skin had taken on a rather sickly yellow colour from his shoulder down to his elbow.

“Your life isn’t in danger,” Q said down the earpiece, “but it _will be_ if you don’t get a move on.”

“I think I’d rather be stabbed,” James muttered, shoving himself up from the dirty floor, holstering his gun in his good hand. It was lucky that his left side had taken the worst of the force, he was better with his right, something that the weapons trainer at MI6 detested.

“You’re so dramatic,” Q remarked.

“Or shot,” James said. The corridor was silent, lined with dead bodies and a faint wisp of gunpowder that filled the air. Most of the targets were dead, those who weren’t had already fled.

It was just a case of James having to leave the scene.

“Maybe even skewered,” James muttered, as he reached the end of the corridor, and spotted the fire exit that lay opposite. It was riddled with bullet holes, sunlight streaming in through it, and buckled from where James had fired one of the larger air cannons that he had found lying around.

It was amazing what someone could create when they had trouble trying to get ammunition into the warehouse.

“That’s the same as being _stabbed,_ 007,” Q remarked.

James rolled his eyes as he kicked down the fire door. He squinted as light streamed through the open door, revealing a vast expanse of green forests that spilled out down the Italian countryside.

“No it’s not,” James remarked, as he made his way down the fire escape. He did _hate_ it when Q referred to him by his title and not his name.

 _There are regulations for a reason,_ James thought, _to be broken._

“You know it the same, 007,” Q said, his voice sounding more cross. James smirked, jumping the last two steps onto the dusty ground. He winced, the jar of the fall hurting his shoulder.

“Have you ever been skewered, Q?”

“007, I’d like to remind you this is an open line,” Q said.

James chortled back a laugh as he ran across towards the impromptu car park that the targets had made when James had set off the alarm in the building. He had already pilfered one of the keys from the body of the first target he shot.

“You don’t have to remind me, Q,” James said, as he ran to the one BMW out of the group, passing his gun to his left hand so he could fish the key out of his pocket.

“Oh so you’re stealing the car _without_ breaking the window this time?” Q remarked, as James hopped into the driver’s seat, almost cracking his knees on the steering wheel.

“I’ve already got enough bruises for one day, Q,” James said, as he adjusted the seat backward. He had about ten minutes before the back ups made an appearance, which was _plenty_ of time to readjust his seat.

“From being _skewered_ ,” Q said.

“Don’t say it like that,” James said, shutting the door and revving the engine. It _was_ a good car, solid and reliable. He had driven a few around in the UK when MI6 had tested their new fleet of BMW cars that had been given a few Q branch amendments.

“Like what?” Q remarked, trying to sound innocent.

“Oh you know what I mean,” James said, spinning the wheels and shooting out of the car park. They had what they needed, sitting in the hard drive in James’ pocket, now he just had to get back home so Q could analyse it.

“Just get home,” Q said, “I want both _you_ and the disk in one piece.”

James smiled. For Q, that was pretty much a declaration of love.

“Of course,” James replied, clicking off the comms. He pressed the accelerator, allowing the car to build speed down the straight road, leaving the bullet ridden warehouse behind him.


	2. Let the dead lie dead (and the living will live with their shadows)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James visits Vesper's graveside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **WARNINGS: This is sad. Angsty as hell. And pain. Lots of pain.**
> 
> Characters: James Bond, Vesper Lynd (reference), Q  
> Pairings: James/Vesper, Implied James/Q
> 
> Written as part of the MI6 Cafe 007 Games.
> 
> Prompt: Live and Let Die (Prompt table 1)

It hadn’t been supposed to be this way.

Not this.

James sat in the rain, umbrella discarded, looking at the cold tombstone in front of him. He could feel the rainwater sluicing its way down the back of his neck, trickling down his spine, and seeping through the hem of his trousers.

He didn’t care.

How could he, now he had found it? It just made him numb to look at the cold, lifeless letters etched in stone, surrounded by dead flowers and rotting grass. It was just another name on another stone in another graveyard.

It meant nothing, it _showed_ nothing of the person who lay below the ground.

Of her.

“Why?” James croaked. He could still see her face, he could still see the way she floated when she had taken her final breath, he could still see the cries for help as she sunk behind the cold iron bars.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” James said. He didn’t show emotion, not in his line of work. he had spent years creating a barrier between his emotions and his job.

And she had broken through it. She had snuck her way into his heart when he wasn’t looking, and unleashed emotions back into his soul.

He wanted _her,_ not this lifeless gravestone. He didn’t want to look at the numbers that were etched on it, the indicators of a life now gone.

It had taken him years to find this place, and now he couldn’t bear being here.

Then, the rain stopped.

Well, it continued, heavily, thundering down on the ground around him. However, it now longer hammered into his skull, drumming in his survivors guilt into his bones.

“You look like you could need this,” Q said, as he sat down on the wet ground next to James, “so I thought I’d hold it for you.”

It wasn’t what Q _said,_ but what he didn’t say.

 _I’m here to help,_ was what Q meant. And Q would mean it, without Q’s help he would have never been able to track down this place.

“Thank you,” James croaked, reaching out and squeezing Q’s hand slightly.

It was the curse of the living, to live with the guilt of the dead.

One day, he would be able to live and let the dead lie in peace.

But for now, he would sit here in the wet graveyard and cry. He would cry for all the things he had lost, the futures that had been cut short, the hope in his heart that had been crushed.

But at least he had Q here, to help. And that made all the difference in the world.


	3. Anchor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When James wakes up from a nightmare, Q is the anchor that brings him back into reality again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written as part of MI6 Cafe's 007 Games.
> 
> Prompt: Sunshine

There was a moment, just before dawn broke, when James would wake up from a nightmare and stare over at Q.

Q would still be sleeping, of course. He would sleep through anything, unless James actually got _out_ of the bed, then Q would wake up. James had done that before to go and cry on the sofa, only to find a bleary eyed Q wrapped in a duvet plonked next to him so James could cry into his shoulder.

This time, James didn’t feel the need to get out of bed to shake of the remaining tendrils of the nightmare. No, now he just reached out, gently, and touched Q’s shoulder with the barest whisper of weight he could muster.

That was all he needed to pull himself back to reality. Q’s shoulders would gently rise and fall with his breathing, and the motion would rock James into a sense of peace like a mother rocking a cradle. In the dim just-morning light, James could make out Q’s outline against the light which skimmed around the edges of the window. It was really amazing, James thought, that someone as wonderful and brilliant and _perfect_ as Q could just be lying there, next to him, so at peace and so brilliantly loveable.

And James did love him, especially in those moments. Especially when Q would never realise it, and he never would realise it, as James wouldn’t tell him. These were private thought, delicate thoughts, ones which he would hold close to his heart so that their light would never be extinguished by the evil he saw in the world.

“I love you,” James whispered. And he meant it, with every breath of his soul.

Then he shuffled next to Q, and curled around him. Q moved in his sleep, moulding naturally to James’ shape, pulling James’ arm close around him.

James smiled as he lay his head back on the pillow. The nightmare had gone now, and all that he was left with was a pure brilliant feeling that lulled him to the realms of dreams.

Love.


	4. At the Bottom of the Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Vesper wait at the bottom of the garden, because _apparently_ there are fairies. (James doesn't believe it. Vesper is determined to find out).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the Mi6 Cafe 007 Games
> 
> Prompt Table 1, Prompt: Fairy Tale/Myth AU.
> 
> James/Vesper, Domestic AU (with a side of fairies). Rating: PG
> 
> A/N: not sure if this is an 'AU' as such, but as there aren't fairies in the James Bond canon then I think it can be an AU.

James was never one for gardening.

Like, Vesper would do the gardening. Not because it was her job, but that James was simply _no good_ at it. The plants that Vesper was able to cultivate so gently he would kill as soon as he put a watering can over it.

It was infuriating really, which is why James stuck to DIY. At least shelves wouldn’t suddenly die on him after he had assembled them. (Although there was that one time where a stack of shelves fell over, books and all. Vesper never lets him forget this, although James really hoped she would).

But one day Vesper insisted that she had seen _someone_ at the bottom of the garden. It was always late at night, just around dusk, and Vesper could _swear_ it was a person.

Which was why James was sat, with Vesper, in the pouring rain, with only a torch and an umbrella for company.

“You have got to be kidding me,” James whispered to his wife, “this is stupid.”

Vesper elbowed James. He made a mock pout.

“Just wait,” she said, eyes lighting up with excitement. She always looked beautiful when she did that.

“We’ve been waiting for three hours,”

“Just a bit more patience, please darling,” Vesper said.

“I’ve used that in the last three hours,” James replied.

“Wait,” Vesper said, hand out in a flash and pointing towards the corner of the garden, “look!”

James followed where her finger was pointing, squinting in the darkness. Vesper snatched the torch off James, turning it on and pointing it at the corner of the garden.

“Oh my god,” James said, as the torch lit up the tiny dancing figures in the corner of the garden. Some of them looked around roughly at Vesper, gesturing with their tiny hands for her to lower the light.

She did. The tiny figures stopped gesturing and started dancing again.

“They’re tiny people,” James said. It was ridiculous, _totally_ ridiculous. Eve was never going to believe this when they next invited her round to dinner.

“They’re fairies,” Vesper whispered back, “maybe you could ask them for a wish!”

“Why would I wish for anything,” James replied, a smile appearing on his face, “when I have you.”

Vesper smiled and poked James in the arm. That was her way of declaring her love back to him.

“Love you too,” James replied.


	5. Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Q proposes to James

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for one of the SFW Prompts as part of the MI6 Cafe 007 Fest! (00Q - Marriage Proposal, Fluff).
> 
> Also used as my "free space" prompt for Prompt Table 1

There was a moment just before Q proposed, where he took in James.

James knew. At least Q _thought_ that James knew. James was good at guessing, he was a bleeding _00_ agent, trained killer and expert at reading people, so there was a good chance that James actually _knew._

Well, he didn’t _know,_ he would only be able to surmise. Because Q had been damn bloody sure to make this a surprise.

 _Breathe,_ Q told himself, _breathe._

“I know that you told me that love is forever,” Q said, taking James’ hand and squeezing it gently, “and I want to make that forever with _you_.”

James’ eyes widened, just slightly. Q had debated for hours how long to make this speech, and what he should say.

But them, the simple words were the best. They were direct, poignant, and simple.

Q slipped the ring box from his jacket and held it up to James.

James’s smile was like the first sunrays after a rainstorm.

“Will you marry me?” Q said, as he opened the box to show the burnished silver ring inside.

“Yes,” James replied.


	6. Scorpion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James gets tortured by a group who have refined the effects of scorpion venom. His last hope is that Q can find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written as part of the MI6 Cafe 007 Games, for prompt Table 1: Scorpion and "You'll Find Me"
> 
> WARNINGS: Implied Torture using venom, capture etc.

James sat in his makeshift cell with his eyes shut.

He could feel the poison working through his system. This group were clever, their method of torture was through use of refined scorpion venom. They had somehow managed to not only extract it but to dilute it, and chemically change it to subtly make the effect different.

So whilst it _felt_ like James was going to die, he knew in some distant part of his mind that he was delirious. He could feel his heart hammer and his energy levels disappear almost instantly as his body fought to try and stay alive.

But it was all in his head. When he _looked_ at his hands, they did not feel swollen or hard to move. The chemist had managed to reduce the venom to purely psychosis only, and not physical effect.

It was the chemist that James had been sent here to kill. Well, interrogate and _then_ kill. What she knew was far too valuable to just put a bullet through her smart little head.

James groaned, gritting his teeth. Everything _hurt,_ his mind felt like it was being clawed apart by demons, and worst of all he had lost his goddam tracker in the middle of the bloody jungle.

 _They won’t be able to find you here,_ his captors had told him. They had beat him to a pulp, laughed at him, humiliated him, and pushed him to the very edges of his training which he normally did not have to dig into.

His tech was gone, his safety net was gone, and everything looked _rather bad_ as M would say.

 _Come on Q,_ James thought, _you have to find me._

Because if James couldn’t trust that, then he truly was without hope.

Q was his last remaining hope, which James clung onto for dear life.

The cell door opened. The slamming metal on the sides of the metal shipping container was enough to shake James from his psychotic delusions.

A woman stepped through the door. _The_ woman, the chemist.

She slammed the door behind her with the flick of her heeled shoe, leaving only the dim electric lamp for lighting.

“Hello,” she said. Even her voice seemed to be spiked with the same venom which she withdrew from her scorpions.

She withdrew a phone from her jacket pocket and held it up to James’ mouth.

“Say hello to your buddies back home,” she whispered, “they can hear you.”

“You’ll find me,” James whispered. They had to, Q would already be locking down on the signal now.

“Such hope,” she spat, slamming the phone shut with a flick of a long manicured finger, “now, Mr Bond, shall we get down to business?”


	7. Prelude to a Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of how James and Q went on their first date involved a broken harddrive and a pissed off Quartermaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the MI6 Cafe 007 Games!
> 
> Prompt Table 1 - "This Cannot Go On"

“This cannot go on,” Q said,  gesturing to the pile of scraps that had once been a 2 million pound piece of covert equipment.

“It looks worse than it is,” James replied. At least he had the audacity to sound a little sheepish.

“This,” Q said, picking up the charred remains of a hard drive, “was supposed to be indestructible. What did you _do_ to it?”

“Smashed it round my attackers head,”

“You have fists for that!”

“It was _convenient,”_

 _“It was expensive!”_ Q could barely contain his frustration. He was tempted to throw the harddrive at Bonds head but it would probably miss. Q knew his aim was shit.

“Look I'm sorry,” James said,  holding his hands up,  “how can I make it up to you?”

“By not breaking your equipment!” Q said.

“How about dinner?”

“What?”

“You heard me,” James said,  “you, me,  dinner”

Q’s jaw dripped to the floor.

_He is not winning me over that easily._

Somewhere expensive,” Q said. _Fuck it_.

“Certainly,”

“And Italian,”

“Really?” James said.  Q knew James hated Italian. He could hear the pain in James’ voice.

But Q loved Italian so he didn't care. And James had broken his equipment. Again.

That meant he had to suffer.

“Alright,” James relented, a small smile appearing on his face,  “tonight?”

“Deal,” Q replied.

 _This will be totally harmless,_ Q thought, trying not to get distracted by James’ smile, _it’ll go nowhere._


	8. Lustful Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eve quite liked it when Madeline kissed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mi6 Cafe 007 Games fic! 
> 
> Prompt Table 1: Discombobulate (yay that's all 9!)
> 
> Rating: **15-18** Like not full on sex-y times but hands go places.

Eve’s head slammed into the wall as Madeleine pushed her up against the wall. Eve could barely catch her breath before Madeleinekissed her, a powerful, lustful kiss that made her knees weak.

“Christ,” Eve breathed, as Madeleine broke the kiss and smiled evilly at her. Eve could feel Madeleine's hands stroking her back and waist. Her finger brushed the underwire on her bra, causing Eve to shiver.

“You like that?” Madeleine whispered, as she brushed her fingertips across Eve’s bra. Eve pulled Madeleine in for another kiss, hand cupping the back of her head as she pulled the other woman into the wall.

“Yes,” Eve hissed, kissing Madeleine roughly. Her hands went over Madeleine's bra, pushing gently to massage her breast underneath. She slipped her fingers inside Madeleine's trousers, gripping her arse tightly. Madeleine was wearing a thong.

 _Cheeky,_ Eve thought, pressing herself against Madeline.

“Thought you would like it,” Madeleine said, as her hand ran down Eve’s chest and flicked inside her trousers. Eve gasped, as Madeleine gently ran her fingers along the inside of Eve’s jeans.

“You like that?” Madeleine asked.

“You know I fucking do,” Eve said, “I like you.”

“You love me,” Madeleine chuckled.

“And you love me,” Eve said, as Madeleine 's hand slipped further down her jeans, “now show me that you love me.”

“Your wish is my command,” Madeleine said, as she slipped her hand further down into Eve’s trousers.

Eve saw stars.


	9. Handcuffed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eve gets kidnapped and needs a bit of help getting free. Sadly for her captors, her saviour is not who they expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Prompt Table 2: "Handcuffed" and "He'll find a way"
> 
> Written as part of the MI6 007 Games.

“This isn’t looking good,” Eve said to her captors. It was almost hilarious how amateur these people were, the kidnap was borderline hilarious considering they had tried to bundle her into the back of a landrover and none of them had been strong enough to lift her.

Now she was in a warehouse, probably somewhere on the outskirts of the M25, in a dilapidated building that had probably had a demotion order put on it months ago.

This group seemed disorganised. Uncoordinated. The two women guarding the door shifted their weapons nervously, and the brute of a man who hung off to the left shuffled from left to right.

Waiting for something.

“You are bait,” the voice said from over the tannoy. The message lost its menace when it was distorted by the crappy tannoy system.

“Really?” Eve remarked. The handcuffs chaffed at her wrists, at least they had used proper cuffs instead of rope or cableties. Cableties cut like  a bitch.

Sadly, however, it meant she couldn’t break free of them.

“Yes,” the voice said, “it will only be a matter of time before your favourite 007-”

Eve couldn’t help but laugh, a loud, full bellied laugh that echoed around the room.

The voice over the tannoy paused.

“You really think you’re going to draw a 00 agent away from his mission?” Eve rolled her eyes. This group  _ was  _ crap.

“Yes,” the tannoy voice said, “any minute now-”

“You are  going to get your arse handed to you,” Eve said.

“Benjamin,” the voice instructed. The bulky man bristled.

“By who?” the voice said.

Eve glanced up at the skylight, where there was a tiny Q  branch drone hovering just outside. They were specially designed to swam a site, protecting a particular object for any attack. It had been designed to get agents out of situations where they needed some time to escape.

Eve might not be a 00 agent, but she had been through field training. And she had saved James Bond’s ass in Turkey (before shooting him, but Eve didn’t like to remember that bit).

“Got nothing to say now?” the voice said. The bulky man, Benjamin took a step forward and cracked his knuckles.

“Look up,” Eve said with a smile.

Suddenly, a hundred or so swarm bots piled in through the skylight, and began to attack anything in sight. Benjamin was taken down with a few hits, and the women guarding the door dropped to the floor before they could raise their weapons.

Then, like a swarm of bats, they flew back up out of the skylight and back towards their master in Mi6.

One of the bots hovered behind Eve’s arms, using its laser to cut through her handcuffs. It bobbed up around her, sitting directly in front of her eyeline. They were kind of cute, Eve had suggested to Q that he name them all although Q had said that he would soon run out of names.

“Thanks, Q,” Eve said to the bot. It bopped up and down in recognition, before following its fellows out of the building.

_ Right,  _ Eve thought,  _ now time to get out of here  _ .


	10. Bad Decisions (Sometimes leads to good things)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madeleine asks Eve on a date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the MI6 Cafe 007 Games. Prompt Table 2, Prompts: Bad Decision and First Time
> 
> A/N: Short and sweet! Thank you to everyone whose commented and kudosed this collection, hope you are all enjoying the 007 Games!

The first time Eve and Madeleine went on a date, Eve knew it was a bad decision.

Not that dating Madeleine was a bad decision, but the bad decision which _led_ to the first time they went out to get a takeout and ended up in Eve’s flat at about 1am drinking crappy Tesco’s wine and reminiscing about their previous lovers and romantic exploits.

See, there was a thing about dating co-workers in Mi6, you kept it to yourself. You stayed professional in the office and you kept your private life at home.

Eve wasn’t so good at that. It was why she had a rule that she would only date someone _outside_ of Mi6, where she could just lie and say she was a top board advisor for a big company on the Thames. Sometimes for the hell of it she would say she was a music producer. Another more memorable time she had said that she was a ghost writer.

So when Madeleine caught Eve’s hand one time, just as the clock hit eight o’clock, and asked if Eve wanted to get dinner sometime instead of just spending their lunchtimes together, Eve knew that it was going to be a bad decision.

But just because it was a bad decision, it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t lead to good things.


	11. The Little Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was the little things that held a relationship together, especially one which was constantly under stress like Q and James’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written as part of the MI6 007 Games, Prompt Table 2: "Space".
> 
> Written in a similar style as my starlighter universe. I decided I needed to exercise my creativity today. Hope you like!

Space is vast.

You cannot comprehend the vastness, for the human mind cannot compute the complexity of such scale. It is undefinable, unknown, and full of everything that has ever existed since the dawn of time itself.

When you think of space like that, it is amazing to consider how wonderful love is. From a reality that is so undeniably complicated, a simple emotion can cut across the ties and boundaries and boxes that humans put themselves inside. It weaves between words, slips under another’s skin, and draws out their spirit so that the person may comprehend the world with a new view.

Q couldn’t _not_ keep his smile of his face. No reason, it was an unremarkable Thursday in the middle of an unremarkable week, with a weekend ahead that would likely involve a number of pub visits with Eve and Bill, followed by a competitive games evening when Bill would trounce them all with his strategic thinking.

But today, he had received a text. A rather illegal text, considering James was supposed to be on a _mission_ and _deep under cover_ but apparently that didn’t stop him from buying a pay as you go phone in the back end of a market somewhere in Japan and using various routers and secret equipment so that Q could have a little message pop up on his phone when he woke up.

_Good Morning, Darling, I love you xx._

That day, on that Thursday, the world seemed to be a little brighter, and Q felt his step a little lighter. It was the little things that held a relationship together, especially one which was constantly under stress like Q and James’.

“What’s got you so happy today?” Gemma, one of Q’s right hand women, asked as Q made his morning cup of tea before the day began.

“Just a text,” Q smiled broader now. It was so thoughtful of James to go out of the way to send him that message.

 _I love you so much,_ Q thought. Maybe the universe, in all of it’s vast complexities, would take the message to James in his sleep. Maybe it would permeate his dreams, a little whisper of happiness in a mission fraught with danger.

Gemma smiled. She knew. She always knew, she was a bloody good analyst and engineer to boot.

“I’m glad,” she said, as she stirred her tea, “you deserve someone like him, Q.”


	12. Never in a million years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eve likes Madeleine. A lot. She's just not sure how she'll be able to tell Madeleine how she feels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the MI6 Cafe SFW prompt: "How to confess to your psychiatrist without looking like an arse. I guess it doesn't matter, she likes you too" (Eve/Madeleine)
> 
> Hope you like this! This is also going to count towards my *Free space* for Prompt Table 2 of the MI6 Cafe 007 Games!

“Right,” Madeleine said, flipping over the page on her clipboard, “any changes since our last meeting?”

Eve squirmed. Well, she mentally squirmed, in fact she used every ounce of her field training to not move in her seat, and keep her face a stony cold slate.

 _Oh not much,_ Eve thought to herself, _just the fact that I think you’re quite pretty. Like rather pretty. Okay, very pretty. Sort of can-i-ask-you-on-a-date-pretty._

“Not much,” Eve replied.

Madeleine raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. She was excellent in conveying an entire sentence without any words at all.

This sentence said: _there is something that you’re not telling me._

“Excellent,” Madeleine said, “I need to go over some stuff you said about the nightmares in our last session. Have you been trying the techniques I suggested?”

“Yes,” Eve replied, internally cursing herself. Her voice sounded too hard, too snappy. She was trying to bury her feelings deep, _deep_ down.

There was no way in the realm of reality that Madeleine would be interested in her. Eve might know her own worth, but she also knew when someone was _well_ out of her league.

“Have they helped?” Eve asked.

 _Well now I go to sleep thinking what it would be like to kiss you instead,_ Eve thought.

“Yes,” Eve said, “I’ve had less nightmares since. It calms me down before I go to sleep.”

“Great,” Madeleine smiled. Eve felt her heart do a little jump.

Madeleine wrote down her notes on her pad. She was wearing the same office clothes that any other woman would wear, but on her the skirt seemed to be just _right_ and Eve couldn’t help admire how Madeleine’s fitted shirt exemplified her body.

This meeting wasn’t supposed to be long. It was just a check up. Eve felt herself resisting the urge to check her watch.

Madeleine finished her notes, and closed her pad.

“What is it you’re not telling me?” Madeleine said.

“What?”

“The thing,” Madeleine gestured to Eve’s tense body, “that is making you want to bolt for the door.”

“Ugh,”

“New boyfriend?” Madeleine asked.

Eve snorted. She hadn’t dated a guy in at least three years. Besides, why look at men when she had _Madeleine_ to dream over at work.

“Girlfriend?”

“I wish,” Eve remarked.

“Wish?” Madeleine said, smiling, “out of your league you think?”

“Oh yeh,” Eve replied, putting her hand up as far as she could reach, “this lady is up here and I’m somewhere down on the ground floor.”

“We’re on floor 10,”

“I know,” Eve said, “out of my league.”

“Why?” Madeline replied.

“Oh you know,” Eve waved her hand, trying to keep her feelings in check, “the normal. Beautiful, funny, intelligent and all those things. The type of person who _already_ would have someone to go out with. Very much Out Of My League and Out of My Reach so I’ll just enjoy the crush.”

“Is it someone at work?” Madeleine said.

Eve pursed her lips.

“Is it Angelica in ops?” Madeleine asked.

“Nope,”

“Lucy up in Q branch?”

“No, really not my type,” Eve said. Lucy was pretty, for sure, but she was a brunette. Eve’s type was certainly blondes.

“Olivia?”

“No,”

“Penny?”

“Nope,”

“Tracy?”

“No,” Eve said, trying to stop her heart racing. Goddamit, _why did she have to fall in love with the one person she couldn’t have?_

“Oh come on,” Madeleine said, “it’s not like that you can’t tell me.”

 _Oh fuck it,_ Eve thought.

“Look,” Eve said, scrambling over her words, “it’s you okay?”

 _Oh god,_ Eve thought, _that was a mistake._ The awkward moment was palpable, and Eve felt like every bone in her body was being squeezed by embarrassment.

“Me?” Madeleine asked.

“Yes,” Eve said, getting up from her chair and walking towards the door “now this is super awkward so I’m going to leave now.”

A hand grabbed her wrist.

“Wait,” Madeline said, pulling Eve towards her. Eve felt her heart thundering in her chest as she stood mere inches from Madeleine. She was even more beautiful up close.

Madeline leaned in, just slightly, and pressed a kiss to Eve’s lips.

The world spun. Or maybe stopped. Eve wasn’t sure, all she could feel was Madeleine’s lips on hers.

“Did you ever think,” Madeleine said, staring up into Eve’s eyes, “that I might like you back?”

“Never in a million years,” Eve replied, unable to keep the smile from sweeping across her face.


	13. Waltzing the Evening Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Madeleine like to spend their evenings dancing with one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For isthisrubble with whom I created this idea of James/Madeleine dancing! Going to use it as a Prompt for my Prompt Table in the Mi6 Cafe Games!

They had cleared all the furniture to the corners of the room, stacked chairs on top of one another, and even blocked the cats into the kitchen so they could dance.

The iPod was set to shuffle, well set to shuffle on Madeleine’s dancing playlist. It was full of songs that James would not normally listen to, everything from Goo Goo Dolls to Ed Sheeran, with a side of classical songs to boot.

“Come on,” Madeleine giggled, dragging James to the centre of the floor. He couldn’t help smile as she bounced towards the centre of the room, throwing in a little twirl as well.

Their dancing wasn’t professional, or coordinated. They would trip up over each other’s feet, stumble around the room, laughing all the way and make silly faces at one another. The cats would sometimes get out and try and join in as well, which would result in James having to remember his footwork _and_ not step on the feline tails that brushed between his feet.

Madeleine was a natural at dancing. She moved with an ease that spoke of one born to dance. Maybe, in another life with another start, she would have been able to have dancing lessons and follow up her natural grace with practice and tutelage.

James made a mental note to encourage Madeleine to join a dancing class at some point. Not now, though, she was still trying to adjust to the world. This week she had managed to not have any anxiety attacks on the tube, crammed in with all the people on her way to Mi6. James was proud of her, really, really proud of her. Every day was a step in the right direction, towards a life that was not hidden behind false identities and worrying about the people who might want to find her to get to her father.

She was just Madeleine, wonderful, beautiful Madeleine.

In James’ mind’s eye, they did not dance in their living room, but inside a grand ballroom. The lights would be shining above, and he would be in a suit with a bowtie.

Madeleine would be there, of course, dressed in a flowing pink gown that was the soft pink of the last rays of sunset, her hair long and flowing and free. She would be laughing, as she was in front of him now, throwing her head back with a smile on her face that was as intoxicating as any alcohol.

They would spin and twirl, not tripping and falling, their bodies moving around each other in a natural rhythm that followed the music. As James spun round, his coat tails would fly out, and as Madeleine spun on her toe her dress would billow outwards, making her look like the princess that she was inside.

“What you thinking?” Madeleine said, as she wrapped her arms around James and pulled him close.

James smiled.

“Nothing,” he replied, “just you,”

Madeleine pressed a kiss onto his lips.

“Come on silly,” she said, twirling James around, “I like this song. Let’s dance.”


	14. Porcelain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James reflects on M's final gift to him - a porcelain dog.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for MI6 Cafe Prompt Table 2: "This is not going to end well" and "Last Words" Prompts!
> 
> Warnings: Angst, grief, death.

Endings were always the bit that James hated the most.

It was the finality of it. The definite _end_ that shoved a huge milestone marker into one’s life. It was where something, _someone_ got put into the past and they couldn’t come back.

He nudged the porcelain dog on his desk. He didn’t need it, it was still ugly, but he knew why M had given it to him.

In part, it was because she wanted him to keep being stubborn. She was stubborn, she _had_ been stubborn, and it was the reason that she had liked James.

In part, it was because she wanted him to remember her. A memorial of sorts, to the times they had shared. A promise that he would keep, that he would see her work continue, that he would see the ship steered in the right direction.

But in part, James knew it was because the damn dog would make him smile. And M was always one who would do anything to make another person smile.

 _A fitting tribute M,_ he thought, poking the dog with a pen, _and even more fitting last words._

Things, after all, might never end well. But that didn’t give James an excuse not to smile.


	15. The Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To become a 00, you had to kill a 00. Those were The Rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Mi6 Cafe Prompt Table: "Canon AU" Prompt.
> 
> Eve Moneypenny, Action, Violence, Rating: T. 
> 
> Warnings: this has some quite dark themes.
> 
> A/N: This story took a turn for the dark, something that I didn't intend but It was interesting all the same!

“Man down,” Eve says over the radio. She watches as James falls from the bridge, tumbling down like a rag puppet with his strings cut. He falls out of sight, and she lowers her gun.

She can here the silence from the other end of the line. She breathes, deep solid breaths that focusses her mind.

 _Oh god,_ Eve things, _oh no._

James is out of sight now, and the train has gone. In its wake it leaves silence, a deafening, deadly silence.

Eve likes to think she could hear the splash of James’ body in the valley below. She would never hear the sound, not this high up.

_Oh god what have I done?_

“Confirm,” M’s voice said over the comms.

Eve knew what came next. It was the thing that she had always known, a thing that had been passed down from her time in basic training.

There was only one way to become a 00.

 _Oh god,_ she thought, swallowing the bile that rose in her throat. She had always wanted this, but not this way.

_Oh god, not in this way._

“Confirmed,” Eve replied.

She could hear M’s breath down the earpiece. They all knew how cutthroat this world was, and there was a reason that this rule was in place.

Everyone knew the rules. Everyone played by the rules.

Sometimes you won. Sometimes you lost.

This time, Eve had won.

 _But I don’t want to win,_ she thought, _not like this. Not with James. He was my friend._

If James’ ghost could have risen from the depths of the Turkish valleys below her, he would probably tell her that she was being a complete idiot.

“Will you take it?” M asked.

 _For him,_ Eve thought, as she began to dissemble her gun. Her life was about to take a new turn, a dangerous turn, and one that she could never come back from.

“Yes,” she replied. The word was a whisper, a promise to James that she would do good by him. Even though it was her mistake, even though it was her error, the rules still held true.

“Very good,” M said, “welcome to the 00 section, 007.”


	16. Tough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eve loved Madeleine just the way she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Castillon's prompt "Tough" Eve/Madeleine. Sadly I didn't have time to finish this during the games, but hope you like it!
> 
> A/N: Any stories from this chapter onwards are written using the MI6 007 Games Prompts, even if they were not counted as points during the competition!

Madeleine was tough.  She was strong, and stubborn and unflappable and brilliant in more ways than Eve could ever try and describe.

Madeleine just _was._

And Eve loved that. She loved the fact that Madeleine could hold her own against her in an argument, that she wasn’t afraid to stand by her views (however much they might disagree), even when Madeleine would mutter furiously under her breath in French about the state of the world.

But Eve also loved her for her vulnerability. Not when Madeleine felt vulnerable and Eve would have to hold her tight as she cried into her shoulder because the world was slightly too big, and too scary, but when Madeleine would whisper her secrets into Eve’s ear at night and trust Eve like she had no one else.

That was what love was for, in Eve’s opinion. It was in the hidden nooks and crannys of a person, slipping between bones and into the fibres of a person. Their love was eternal, it was as bright as the stars and as warm as a roaring log fire. It was as quiet as a stream but also as violent as a volcano. It was all of these things, and more, and it made Eve smile every time she looked at Madeleine.

“What are you thinking?” Madeleine would say, as Eve would beam at her for no reason from across the other end of the sofa.

“Nothing much,” Eve would reply with a grin, “just how wonderful you are.”

Because Madeleine was wonderful, beautiful, and tough. And she was brilliantly, fabulously, human.


End file.
